Fabrication status and expected performance of the inner-core X-ray optic for BabyIAXO
Abstract
BabyIAXO, a pathfinder for the International Axion Observatory (IAXO), is designed to demonstrate all key technologies at scale while achieving an improvement in sensitivity over the recent CERN Axion Solar Telescope (CAST) experiment by approximately a factor of five. Such improvement is enabled by the X-ray optics, which allow for maintaining a high signal-to-noise ratio at the detector despite a cross-sectional area of the magnetic bore being over 250 times larger than that of CAST. The optic employs a hybrid design consisting of co-aligned inner core and outer corona optics that share a common optical axis and vacuum vessel but differ in focal length and manufacturing approach. Both are segmented glass optics, with the inner core fabricated from thermally slumped borosilicate glass and the outer corona from cold-slumped Corning Willow glass. To fabricate the inner-core optic, leveraging techniques developed for NuSTAR and HEFT optics, we reoptimized and streamlined the thermal-forming procedure. The quality of free-standing glass substrates was characterized by laser metrology, X-ray reflectometry, and atomic force microscopy. We developed a cutting technique that produces smooth edges at the micron scale. We used flat stacks of glass-epoxy-graphite layers to evaluate the performance of the epoxy bondline. The optic is expected to achieve an on-axis point spread function (PSF) with a half-power diameter (HPD) of < 90", enhancing the signal-to-noise ratio by more than 55 times.
Versions
Related
- Asgard/NOTT: Status of laboratory nulling performance
- Status and performance of the Asgard/NOTT cold nulling camera
- The tidal features of the classical Milky Way satellites: Expected in MOND but inconsistent with cold dark matter models
- Non-thermal emission in jets and winds: Expected emission and spectral index distributions
- Planet formation at the inner edge of the dead zone. II. Outbursts, rings, vortices, and planetesimal formation
BibTeX
@misc{woo2026fabrication,
title = {{Fabrication status and expected performance of the inner-core X-ray optic for BabyIAXO}},
author = {Jooyun Woo and Yue Yu and Ipek Altunyurt and Todd Decker and Desiree Della Monica Ferreira and Peter Lindquist Henriksen and Eftychia Kotsiou and Sonny Massahi and Kerstin Perez and Anacorina Romero and Jaime Ruz and Vyshnavi Sabbi and Marcela Stern and Julia Katharina Vogel},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = jul,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2607.20282},
eprint = {2607.20282},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.20282},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Fabrication status and expected performance of the inner-core X-ray optic for BabyIAXO
AU - Jooyun Woo
AU - Yue Yu
AU - Ipek Altunyurt
AU - Todd Decker
AU - Desiree Della Monica Ferreira
AU - Peter Lindquist Henriksen
AU - Eftychia Kotsiou
AU - Sonny Massahi
AU - Kerstin Perez
AU - Anacorina Romero
AU - Jaime Ruz
AU - Vyshnavi Sabbi
AU - Marcela Stern
AU - Julia Katharina Vogel
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/07/22
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2607.20282
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.20282
AB - BabyIAXO, a pathfinder for the International Axion Observatory (IAXO), is designed to demonstrate all key technologies at scale while achieving an improvement in sensitivity over the recent CERN Axion Solar Telescope (CAST) experiment by approximately a factor of five. Such improvement is enabled by the X-ray optics, which allow for maintaining a high signal-to-noise ratio at the detector despite a cross-sectional area of the magnetic bore being over 250 times larger than that of CAST. The optic employs a hybrid design consisting of co-aligned inner core and outer corona optics that share a common optical axis and vacuum vessel but differ in focal length and manufacturing approach. Both are segmented glass optics, with the inner core fabricated from thermally slumped borosilicate glass and the outer corona from cold-slumped Corning Willow glass. To fabricate the inner-core optic, leveraging techniques developed for NuSTAR and HEFT optics, we reoptimized and streamlined the thermal-forming procedure. The quality of free-standing glass substrates was characterized by laser metrology, X-ray reflectometry, and atomic force microscopy. We developed a cutting technique that produces smooth edges at the micron scale. We used flat stacks of glass-epoxy-graphite layers to evaluate the performance of the epoxy bondline. The optic is expected to achieve an on-axis point spread function (PSF) with a half-power diameter (HPD) of < 90", enhancing the signal-to-noise ratio by more than 55 times.
ER -